Paul Garner on Long Covid and ME/CFS - BMJ articles and other media.

There is an interesting quote from Eisenberg. I wonder if Garner knows it.

The role of the Social Sciences

Most patients treated by most doctors get well most of the time. That good fortune for patients - and for doctor's reputations - creates a problem for the practitioner. It is difficult for the doctor to avoid concluding that the patient improved because of what he or she has done.
The difficulty is compounded because existing patterns of medical practice do not provide information on the denominator; that is the relevant population in the community from whom the sample seen in the office is drawn..

Is there too much science in medicine or not enough? A position paper. 1986.
In Illness behaviour - a multidisciplinary model eds McHugh and Vallis

 

I think the original tweet (which PG quote tweeted) from Panda was deleted probably because of the negative replies. Panda then tweeted the video again.

 

I wonder who picked up the bill from Panda Film. And why?

 

At the end it says self funded. So imagine he did unless he got sponsored by PG Tips.

 

You obviously know about such things. What is the ball-park figure for a professionally made video of that sort.

One wonders what the cost/benefit analysis is on this.

 

I don't really know but a quick look on online suggests around £1000 for a similar corporate video.

 

Sadly we seem to have attended the same undergraduate institution. Was not pleased to discover this

 

The modern coinage is called 'ego-surfing'.

 

Cochrane website page with links to most of Paul Garners articles, interviews (worldwide) etc

https://cidg.cochrane.org/news/co-o...rner-discusses-his-experience-having-covid-19

 

I would have thought they would distance themselves from this. Seems they have chosen to embrace it.

 

This article was going well until . . .

PG is making his 'mark', as you say n=1 everywhere. It's truly baffling.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/what-we-know-and-dont-know-about-long-covid

What bothers me more is that CFS (or ME) is linked to his name.

 

It seems strange for a Professor of the LSTM to believe that because he thinks his own symptoms were due to hypochondriasis, therefore everybody else's might be.

EDITED to remove the H

 

I think Garner is LSTM - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine - without the hygiene!

 

Spoiler: moving image

 

The page about Paul Garner's experience with covid was created on or before June 17 2020: https://web.archive.org/web/2020061...rner-discusses-his-experience-having-covid-19, well before he cured himself by thinking positively or whatever. So originally the page was just about his personal experience with covid (and now it's unfortunately about his great personal discovery about how post-viral conditions work)

Paul Garner's writings about his long covid experience always seemed to have a significant confidence about his own observations, whilst also being mixed with a willingness to believe what other people told him about his condition. He also initially talked about how what he had was not "just" post-viral fatigue, which may have been a hint for his views of ME which would later emerge. When you think about it, I think in many ways his behavior after recovering is consistent with his behavior before recovering.

Unfortunately, when he recovered, he was following the advice of some Norwegians with particular views, and not the ME community, so they get the credit for curing him.

We all have our personality flaws and personal biases. Getting a very unpleasant post-viral syndrome which makes your life very hard can be very shocking and hard to deal with. I think everyone in this forum has been unwell for a very long time, so memories may not be that fresh, but the inital phase of getting ME or it deteriorating significantly is extremely difficult and shocking to deal with (even if someone is still relatively functional, as Paul was). Having something that makes sense of that is nice, in the face of such uncertainty and changes to your life and functioning. In that context, I think his behavior makes sense.

I'm not sure whether his views can really be changed. People should point out that his experience is n=1 and his advice could have negative effects, but that's about the best that can be done. Besides that, I think people should have and show empathy for him. His behavior does clearly demonstrate how difficult post-viral conditions can be, and he's gone through an unpleasant experience which has some resemblance to what most people in this forum have gone through, which most people don't go through.

 

His behaviour is insulting and irresponsible, and does not reflect the experiences of pwME by making comments such as 'disarming'' ME/CFS.

His dismissiveness towards pwME when they tried to explain their experiences says a lot about him.

 

Can Cochrane just fold already? What is even the point of this organization when one of its "experts" in "clinical evidence" goes around with his little N=1 self-story of magical thinking beating 90% odds? What a clown show. And this, this thing has actual power over millions, destroying lives. And it's the "golden standard"?

Please, end this sorry experiment, these people are unable to fulfill their role in this, and guaranteed that this will not even have 1 person within the organization pushing back on this, meanwhile people were up in arms about literally applying Cochrane's own standards and policies. This has gotten beyond ridiculous.